DWTH Day 46: Brrrr…Is That…Flowing Water?

Stats

A Cold, Windy Morning

Surprisingly, we slept last night. 

Neither of us had high expectations of good sleep, not with the wind predicted overnight. A few gusts woke us, but our spot worked, and our stakes held. 

Several times, as I turned over, I could hear the wind howling in the distance. 

Thanks, Open Snow, for the accurate weather report!

Flowing Water

We left camp wearing many layers. As we went downhill, we hopped back into the wash, which had felt wet yesterday. 

Sauntering down and mildly shivering, suddenly, we heard something. 

“Is that…flowing water?” Karma asked. 

We continued and found a large sandy seep. The wash was oozing enough water upward there that it flowed. 

This is exciting because almost all of our water has been stagnant (except for the Bill Williams River).  We’ve used game guzzlers, cow troughs, tinajas, and our caches. 

This…flowed. 🤯

We marveled. It was clear, without floaties or swimmers. And…no cow or burro had shit in it! 🤯🤯

Very exciting. 

Cache #6

After some wash walking, two-track sauntering, and a small cross-country dinky pass on a burro trail, we arrived at our sixth cache. 

This went almost all according to plan. 

It was tough to dig out because the rain had cemented the soil. We had to use a hiking pole to dig, and we accidentally punctured one of our gallons of water. 

Luckily, we had 3 and didn’t need them all. There were 3 for purposes like this: if one got damaged or we needed to wash out our socks. 🧦 

We found a spot with less wind since there were no entirely out-of-the-wind options today. 

As we sorted the cache, we ate our packed treats. This time, we each had a Dr. Pepper Cream Soda, canned vegan chili, a can of peaches, and vegan gummy bunnies. 

The Bees 🐝

Slowly, bees began arriving. We saw they were going to the gallon that we set aside with the slow sidewall leak. 

At first, it was one. Then, they slowly seemed to multiply. 😑

We began hurrying to the end of our cache hangout. First, we filled the our water bottles with what we wanted to pack out. Second, with the punctured gallon, we started washing out a few things. 

Then, more bees came. 

I used my umbrella to dry my wet socks, and within moments, bees were on them. 

We reburied the cache carefully, then used our hiking poles to sway the bees away from our drying socks. 

We picked up our packs and jogged a bit to escape them. 

Foothills Wandering

For the next 9 miles, we wandered up and down in the foothills of some mountains. Throughout, we could see i40 off in the distance. 

At our first break, we pulled out and annihilated a cache snack we didn’t want to eat with the bees. We had put on a surprisingly delicious bag of marinated olives and triscuits. All gone in one sitting. 

After that, we started listening to audiobooks and podcasts to pass the time. I finished an audiobook, and Karma listened to podcasts. 

Camp

We knew we wouldn’t be able to escape the wind as well as last night tonight. 

So we had a few criteria: at least one side should have some sort of plant wind block, and all stakes should have heavy yet movable rocks. 

When we found something that met that criteria, we took it. 

This time, we’re camped as close as we can reasonably get to the largest creosote around. 

Fingers crossed that we get some sleep tonight and that the wind dies down like it’s supposed to tomorrow. 🤞